January 22, 2010

Basically, the answers to all these questions are already on the blog. If that sounds enigmatic, I mean to be enigmatic. I'm bored by whether something is right wing or not and how can anyone be right wing and so forth. The point of the blog is not to be bored.

AND: Suddenly, I realize this is my inspiration. I know more about what you do — and you don't even have to ask me how or why or anything — just by looking than you'll ever know about me. Ever. I could tell you, you know, I'm not a right winger and explain to you why, but you wouldn't really understand. All you could do: You would nod your head, you could nod your head. I couldn't even be willing to try. Every word has its little letter and big letter, like the word "know," you know, K-N-O-W, and, you know, the word "know" capital K-N-O-W? Like each of us really knows nothing but we all think we know things....

I once received an anti-evolution joke present at a party. I said, "I don't get it. I believe in evolution." And someone called out, "Ohhhh! No, no! You're a conservative, you have to choose." He was serious.

I share this only to illustrate that lots of people out there have absolutely no idea what it means to be "right wing."

But to people who do know or don't care about precisely categorizing something that isn't precise, it really is boring.

And me, being a resident Somervillian for over ten years (after having lived in Boston for all of my adult/voting life), I'm tired to death of being called pro rape for my voting choice. Having actually had to deal with and move beyond The Physical, am really, *really* tired of having to deal with The Rhetorical.

I once told my father that I was bored, and that really bothered him. He said something like "Bored? BORED?! How can you bored?! I'm NEVER bored!" I said I didn't find enough interesting stuff around. He thought I was being a self-centered fool.

Whenever I feel bored (which still happens), I remember that brief conversation.

One of the little waves spreading out from the Brown election showed up on an old post on my blog where I had complained that an author I really liked had become boring because she had become political.

And she did. Boring. It was sad for me because I really liked her books but I wasn't angry or worked up over it. Slight annoyance I suppose but mostly bored resignation.

In any case one of her fans found me after being accused of being a hater for having a "vote for Brown" avatar/icon, she got banned from fan forums and defriended by the author, and verbally abused when she sent a "I'm sorry, was this a mistake" note to ask to get reinstated.

There does seem to be a not uncommon notion that there really is no way for a person to *be* politically conservative or "right wing", not legitimately.

Is that what Althouse is talking about? Did someone want to interview her about the impossible mystery of being "right wing" (yes, I know, take a deep breath and quit laughing)?

I once received an anti-evolution joke present at a party. I said, "I don't get it. I believe in evolution." And someone called out, "Ohhhh! No, no! You're a conservative, you have to choose." He was serious.

Excellent. The Lefties assume everyone who is religious can't believe that something like evolution could exist because all those theists are fundamentalists.

You really want to drive them up a wall, tell them there are certain liberal positions that you find perfectly reasonable. That free speech means everybody regardless of their political stance, f'rinstance; although they seem to have a problem with that one.

Of the last 20 posts, 7 were containers for complaining about Obama. 2 were dissing "liberal media." All the comments were filled with old white guys-- some of whom actually have some variation of "grumpy old guy" as their screen name. Talking in insane generalities about how "leftists do this."

Palladian: I hope you're joking on the Borderline thing. Althouse likes to play games. I'm bonafide nuts and have manifested it here, but I Get that she's not nasty. (Understand that I have been. Ugh.)

Synova: just watching the agitprop from the local blog aggregate here wearies me. It's really, really hard being a kind of smart, though limited in certain aspects person trying to weigh the options intelligently while having other society/family/career issues to deal with in an area where this sort of thing isn't welcome.

I think it is fair to explain why the Left or Right is wrong, but personally tune out as soon as a poster affixes juvenile insult labels - "racist Republican", "evil pussy-Pelosisms", Chimpy, Rush-drugs, Martha Croakley, Bill O'Slimey, mass murderer Dick Cheney, Teddy died 40 years too late, the Muslim President, etc..

All that tells me is the person is not only boring, but has personalized their politics and stances down on an infantile level, and it is pointless to engage them in dialogue.

In the other thread you were calling liberals "closet fascists", and in another they were the soulless nihilist soldiers of Stalin.

Peer pressure sucks!

And Limbaugh is alright. He became more alright after he was exposed as a druggie.

Robertson? No, he's not alright. He's offensive. His core is shown by his Haiti idiocy and his support of Falwall's Gays-Caused-9/11 remark. He sold his humanity to Evil masquerading as Jesus long ago.

Fine, anyone to the left of Sen. Evan Bayh is a socialist hellbent on the destruction of this American project, and anyone to the right of Sen. McCain (even if only on a single issue) is a torture-happy, homosexual-hating, corporation-loving knuckle-dragger out to rape women of color, deny them healthcare, and force them to not abort the subsequent issue.

littlebeartoe wrote: I once told my father that I was bored, and that really bothered him. He said something like "Bored? BORED?! How can you bored?! I'm NEVER bored!" I said I didn't find enough interesting stuff around. He thought I was being a self-centered fool.

Life, friends, is boring. We must not say so. After all, the sky flashes, the great sea yearns, we ourselves flash and yearn,and moreover my mother told me as a boy (repeatingly) ‘Ever to confess you’re bored means you have no

Inner Resources.’ I conclude now I have no inner resources, because I am heavy bored.Peoples bore me,literature bores me, especially great literature, Henry bores me, with his plights & gripes as bad as achilles,

who loves people and valiant art, which bores me. And the tranquil hills, & gin, look like a drag and somehow a doghas taken itself & its tail considerably awayinto mountains or sea or sky, leaving behind: me, wag.

Meanwhile, as I write this, my kids watch Scooby Doo on Netflix and they are not bored at all.

"...Therefore, since brevity is the soul of wit,And tediousness the limbs and outward flourishes,I will be brief: your noble son is mad:Mad call I it; for, to define true madness,What is't but to be nothing else but mad?But let that go." -Hamlet

Mark Steyn said something along the lines of whenever Republicans win an election it is because of anger and rage but when Democrats win it is kittens with whiskers and raindrops on roses. This pretty much sums up how my lefty friends view the world. I find that I know how they feel (notice I didn't say think) about every single issue. Every one. Whereas they might find that a bit more difficult to do with me. A righty.

"Althouse Blog Commenters: Old white men and the women who love them, and a self-hating old queen."

Why is it that inferior intellects resort to cliched pseudo-psychoanalysis when confronted by a person that they simply don't like or don't agree with? Especially shallow faggots like Zachary, who believe that their sexual orientation somehow comes with a specific freight of political beliefs.

Let me tell you about Zachary Paul Sire: a thirty-something (just like me!) little failure who lived with his mother until he got a job blogging about gay porn because he was too ugly to actually star in any.

I've plenty of my own, darling. I know people in the industry. But thanks for the offer.

Plus, it's people like you who take the fun out of it. Pornography is not supposed to be something that you're "proud" of! It's supposed to be dirty and secret and shameful. Normalizing deviancy has completely ruined all the fun things in life.

Cedarford: All that tells me is the person is not only boring, but has personalized their politics and stances down on an infantile level, and it is pointless to engage them in dialogue.

I recently discussed politics with a friend I shoot archery with. Re the outing of Valerie Plame and Scooter Libby's role in it. He was all "Scootie this" and "Scootie that". He sounded so stupid that I couldn't take him seriously, and I lost alot of respect for him as a rational and reasonable person.

[...]

Freeman: I share this only to illustrate that lots of people out there have absolutely no idea what it means to be "right wing."

Similar story. Dinner at home of Jewish relatives. Very liberal, but also despise socialism. Both daughters well-educated. And I respect them as liberals because they actually walk the walk - dedicating almost all of their time energy and MONEY to things like the Peace Corps and third world aid programs. Always overseas installing some plumbing or medical facility in some poverty striken hell-hole.

Daughter asked me at dinner what conservatism meant. With all her education, she had never been exposed to it. Sad.